Review of The Raid 2 (2014) by Lee S — 04 Jul 2014

Blistering barnacles and thundering typhoons!! I have not seeing this much of hand to hand combat action after The Raid Redemption (2011) and this bone breaking second installment is fantastic. It packs a heavy and a lethal dose of adrenaline for the action movie lovers and that much of a does come seldom with effectiveness. Just like the first movie Raid 2 starts off calm and quiet and gradually builds its plot while becoming bloody and violent from floor to the ceiling.

Raid 2 picks up from the end of the first movie. Rama (Iko Uwais) who is a cop in the Jakarta police force sent undercover to discover evidence of a large crime syndicate. To do this he must commit a crime and get himself in prison and get close to a son of an underworld boss who is serving sentence. While his initial undercover plan last a few months, once in prison he realizes that the game is uglier than expected.

Raid 2 is exactly two and half hours long. And by the look of it it's an insane long for an action flick. But once the action hits the screen and plot starts to reveal the viewers will forget the clock entirely. (or maybe the clock got smashed in to pieces by all the punches and kicks). Not like the first movie which totally takes place in a 20 story drug run apartment Raid 2 hits the streets. And it hits the prisons, night clubs, subways and even road sides like action madness. And this has elegant looking yet blood thirsty bunch of villains and the most wanted element of a thumping action movie, car chases. Imagine all this combined with the sheer amount of punching power of the first movie. It's definitely bigger and better and this is something seldom I can say about sequels.

I must keep a note about the action of Raid 2. It is obvious at a glance that it's natural and performed on location. As this is rare in movies these days the action choreography and pulling it off in such a brilliant way is truly commendable. And the viewers can actually feel the awesomeness of a pure combat with long action sequences and that's mind blowing. There is a high chance that you might miss lot of details in one viewing so just as I did maybe you have to pause, rewind and replay to catch them all. It's lightning fast!

Though Raid 2 is violent and gore it is not violent up to the extent of unwatchable insanity. Therefore most viewers should be able to digest it. And violence is not the real thing to be worried about. It's the ample amount of kicks and punches and forever panning camera movements. If you manage to get through them and survive the cracked walls and shattered glasses Raid 2 will be one of the best action movies you have ever seeing. And this movie will go to my archives of repeat watch worthy action movies and believe me when I say this there is only handful there already (Including The Raid Redemption).